What does it take to get a decent framerate in WoW?

Caporegime
Joined
29 Dec 2007
Posts
32,974
Location
Adelaide, South Australia
My rig:

  • Q6600 at 3.0Ghz

  • 4Gb GeiL low latency ram

  • BFG 9800GTX+ OC at 850 core, 2500 shader & 1800 mem clock

I thought that this combination would rip through the frames at a cracking pace. But it doesn't.

I have all options turned up to full detail in WoW (I am only running 2x AA) and yet the best I can get in Dalaran is 15 fps; sometimes less than 10! Why?

Raids aren't so much of a problem; I can sit on 35-55 in places like Naxx (though I get about 12 fps at the Naxx meeting stone when lots of other players are present).

But the moment I hit a highly populated area, or a region with lots of detailed scenery (like Crystalsong) my frame rate drops to <20. I just don't understand it.

Suggestions please? :confused:
 
Not 100% sure but I've read that the engine is a bit pants and does not 'scale' up well so to speak.

Anyone like to clarify this? :)
 
I've been reading on a few other forums; it seems this is a common problem for 9800GTX+ owners.
 
My rig:

  • Q6600 at 3.0Ghz

  • 4Gb GeiL low latency ram

  • BFG 9800GTX+ OC at 850 core, 2500 shader & 1800 mem clock

I thought that this combination would rip through the frames at a cracking pace. But it doesn't.

I have all options turned up to full detail in WoW (I am only running 2x AA) and yet the best I can get in Dalaran is 15 fps; sometimes less than 10! Why?

Raids aren't so much of a problem; I can sit on 35-55 in places like Naxx (though I get about 12 fps at the Naxx meeting stone when lots of other players are present).

But the moment I hit a highly populated area, or a region with lots of detailed scenery (like Crystalsong) my frame rate drops to <20. I just don't understand it.

Suggestions please? :confused:

I've run WoW at maximum settings (E6600, GTX260, 4GB Geil CAS4) and it's a constant 60 FPS regardless of the map I'm on (I turned Vsync on).
 
My OS is Vista 32 bit; resolution is 1920x1200. I have Vsync on with triple buffering and the latest Nvidia drivers.

I feel mightily ripped off.
 
Yeh your FPS will suffer in Dalaran as a result of SO many people there - however, your issue is a driver issue. For some reason after the patch my FPS went downhill very very badly indeed. So i cimpletely wiped my old drivers and reinstalled them. The difference was incredible - at least 20fps more now.

Seriously, get rid of your drivers and start again - oh and one more thing, you have not by chance gone from an ATI card to an Nvidia card recently have you?
 
Yeh your FPS will suffer in Dalaran as a result of SO many people there - however, your issue is a driver issue. For some reason after the patch my FPS went downhill very very badly indeed. So i cimpletely wiped my old drivers and reinstalled them. The difference was incredible - at least 20fps more now.

Seriously, get rid of your drivers and start again - oh and one more thing, you have not by chance gone from an ATI card to an Nvidia card recently have you?

I've reinstalled this thing several times, wiping all drivers in the process (I used Driver Sweeper) but it's made no difference.

Yes, I went from ATI to Nvidia.
 
I've found with wow you can't get above 60 fps easily. i'm running i7 ,6gb ram, 4870. WOW just can't use the newer hardware its capped at 2GB ram for (ex maps). dosn't support multi threading very well.

The game needs to rewritten lol.

but with that kinda spec i'd expect a higher fps in nax. Dalaran i only get around 20 fps lol
 
Even with a 4ghz i7 you're gonna see FPS dips in Dalaran, until Blizzard make WoW better optimised for multi-core anyway.
 
It seems to vary a lot depending on what region you're in not just the population though, I get 70-80 fps in orgrimmar but head out to borean tundra and I get to enjoy 25-30 fps instead. I found turning off adaptive aa helped a bit on my 4870x2 although it's still comically pap considering :p
 
WoW is weird like that, it's very easy to get FPS to 30-40 in all areas, but FPS seems to hit a brickwall beyond that, no matter how beefy your system is. I've found that not using AA helps more than anything else if I want to see 60+fps consistently.
 
Well, I uninstalled my card, reinstalled the drivers, tweaked some settings in the bios and overclocked it a little bit for the lulz (780 core, 1900 shader, 1300 mem clock). Using 2x AA and shadows turned down to minimum.

I am now getting 30 fps in Dalaran instead of 10, which is a fair improvement. Still disappointing that I have to jump through so many hoops just for a half decent frame rate.
 
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